[Sca-cooks] ancient Roman cookery

[Volker Bach]

Am Donnerstag, 29. September 2005 15:52 schrieb Aurelia Coritana:
> Greetings all!
>
> I decided it really was about time for me to officially speak up on this
> list! I am Aurelia Coritana in Ansteorra, a 1st c. Roman-Brit.
>
> My culinary interests are ancient Roman recipes (with fresh ingredients, of
> course, har har.) Does anyone else out there experiment with ancient
> cookery? If you've ever made anything with garum, I'd love to hear from
> you.
>
> Aurelia

Me, I did. Regularly do. Not that being 'pre-period' is regarded highly in 
central Drachenwald, but my secondary persona, Titus Flavius T.f. Artemidorus 
is something of a gourmet. 

I find that garum is a matter of quality and quantity. If you are using 
Philippine 'bagoong balayam' as your substitute (barely filtered stuff, 
grey-brown and opaque, quite nasty) it goes only with savoury fish or meat 
dishes, and even then it usually 'tastes through' more delicate flavours. I 
only use it in dishes with plenty of onions and/or garlic. A good (filtered, 
liquid, brownish-red) Nuoc Mam or Nam Pla, on the other hand, harmonises with 
almost any dish. I used a dash of it instead of the obligatory pinch of salt 
with a honeyed pear patina, and eveybody praised it highly (unawares. Nobody 
ever eats anything they know contains garum...)

Have you ever managed to get a Roman feast served? They're dead against it in 
my Shire.

Giano


	

	
		
___________________________________________________________ 
Gesendet von Yahoo! Mail - Jetzt mit 1GB Speicher kostenlos - Hier anmelden: http://mail.yahoo.de